Synopsis
Blue Valentine portrays married couple Dean and Cindy and the disintegration of their short marriage. The films shifts in time between the present day and the story of how they met and fell in love.
The thing about Blue Valentine is it’s a very real and gritty depiction of modern relationships. The scenes of the couple beginning their fledgling romance are sweet and memorable but are interspersed with dark, cheerless and depressing scenes from their decaying relationship. This sometimes makes uncomfortable, but always intriguing viewing. It is shot in an almost voyeuristic style, and we are given a fly-on-the-wall view of the behind closed doors interactions of a couple falling out of love. Blue Valentine certainly ticks all the sadness boxes; not only is there a chronicle of the gradual emergence of hate in the couples relationship, there’s a young child dealing with the fall-out of her parents marriage, the death of a family pet and emotional and physical cruelty and violence.
As for the characters, they are not always likeable, but potrayed magnificently by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams who were both rightly nominated for Academy Awards and Golden Globes. The film itself has received many accolades if not awards, including being part of the Official Selection at the Cannes, Sundance and Toronto Film Festials. It's hard to argue with such stellar acclaim.
